Rhine & Moselle Splendors

The second largest city in Switzerland, Basel is spread out on both sides of the Rhine river. The left bank is called the Grossbasel, and the part of the city located on the flatter right bank is Kleinbasel.

Due to its location on an important strategic river and bordering both Germany and France, Basel developed at an early date into an important trading centre. This development is still evident in the many international trade fairs and congresses held here. Basel is not only a city of trade, but it is also known for its production. Indeed, some of the world’s largest chemical and pharmaceutical companies are located here. It is quite natural that Basel plays an important financial and political role. Delegates from major industrial countries come to Basel to discuss the world’s monetary and geo-political situation. Meetings regularly occur in the elegant tower of the Bank for International Settlements (BIZ); yet Basel, also has reason to be proud of its intellectual and cultural importance.

The first university in Switzerland was founded here and Basel famously became the centre of humanism inspired by the visionary Erasmus von Rotterdam. Throughout modern history, great scholars have taught here including the physician Paracelsus and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. A city of enormous appreciation for the arts, Basel boasts 267 museums, a grand new theatre as well as folkloristic gatherings and numerous civic festivals. The biggest event of the year is the Basel Fasnacht when the whole city takes part in the three days of high-spirited celebrations.

Explore this magical town of half-timbered houses.

A quaint medieval town along the Moselle River.

As the French capital, Paris is the commercial, financial, and industrial focus of France, a major transportation hub, and a cultural and intellectual center of international renown. A beautiful city in which tourism is the main industry, Paris is cut by the Seine River. On its stately, formal right (northern) bank are many of the most fashionable streets and shops, and such landmarks as the Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, Louvre, and Sacré Coeur.

The left bank houses governmental offices and is the site of much of the city’s intellectual life. It is known for its old Latin Quarter and for such landmarks as the Sorbonne, the Luxembourg Palace, the Panthéon, and the modern Pompidou Center (see Beaubourg). The historic core of Paris is the Île de la Cité, a small island occupied in part by the Palais de Justice and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. Above the city rises the Eiffel Tower. Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements (boroughs) and governed by a mayor.

A fishing village when it was conquered (52 B.C.) by Caesar, it became an important Roman town. It was a Merovingian capital in the 5th cent. and became the national capital with the accession (987) of Hugh Capet, count of Paris. It flowered as the center of medieval commerce and scholasticism but suffered severely during the Hundred Years War. Paris consistently displayed a rebellious and independent spirit, as in its resistance to Henry IV (1589-93); the first Fronde (1648-49); the revolutions of 1789, 1830, and 1848; and the Commune of Paris (1871). During World War II it was occupied (1940-44) by the Germans but was relatively undamaged.

The Rhine Valley is the general name for the valley, or any section of it, of the Rhine river in Europe.

Here you’ll find dramatic landscapes with fertile vineyards clinging to steep hills, numerous imposing castles and dreamy wine villages. Every little village, it seems, has at least one wine festival per year, with the most famous being the Rhine in Flames series of festivals, when water, lighting and fireworks are combined to spectacular effect. Try to visit the Rhine Valley in early spring or late autumn when the crowds have gone. The best way to see the valley is by boat.

The Rhine Gorge, a section of the Rhine between Koblenz and Bingen, is also known as the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. Home to more than 40 castles and fortresses, it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and arguably the river’s most visited section.

Rüdesheim is a small, very quaint “Bavarian” village in Germany on the Rhine River. Points of interest include the Asbach Brandy Distillery, Cable-car to Niederwald Monument, Medieval Museum of Torture, a Falconry and many wine festivals throughout the year.

Germany’s oldest city and a monument to history: Trier. Founded in 16 B.C as “Augusta Treverorum”, it dramatically blossomed into “Roma Secunda”, a second Rome. Nowhere else in Germany is the Roman past as impressively visible as in this former imperial residence. The Porta Nigra, the Amphitheater, the Imperial Baths, and the Constantine Basilica – all of them UNESCO cultural heritage sites – impressively demonstrate the Roman way of life.

The city on the Mosel River also features stone witnesses to past eras including the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods. The Cathedral, the medieval marketplace, and the palace of the Prince Electors are other historic elements of a dynamic community that lives its past in the present.

Trier is an excellent place to travel back in time – for instance with the tour “2000 Steps – 2000 Years” and the “Roman Meal” based on an original recipe from Apicius. Even back then, the Romans washed it down with a tasty wine grown on the banks of the Mosel.